Tomytec TLV-77D - Subaru Sambar Toshiba PR Car

The Subaru Sambar is an compact van/pickup truck built by automaker Subaru for the Japanese market.

It is Japan's first Keitora (軽トラ), shorthand for "kei class truck" and is still in production. The Sambar is available in both microvan and Kei truck (Pickup truck style) to fulfill the Kei car guidelines.

Still popular in the domestic market, the Sambar continues to be produced in Japan, China, Korea, as well as in Finland with a joint venture with Elcat Automotive.

Since its introduction, the Sambar has used a rear engine, rear wheel drive format (with optional 4WD from 1980 on), with the first two generations using the air-cooled engine from the Subaru 360, and later generations using the water-cooled engine from the Subaru Rex, Vivio and the Pleo.

The current 2008 Subaru Sambar model is still using the Sixth Generation chassis and body with updated fascia. It was the first Kei truck in Japan that used a cabover design, with the passenger cabin over the engine.

Toshiba Corporation (株式会社東芝 Kabushiki-gaisha Tōshiba) is a Japanese multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Its products and services include information technology and communications equipment and systems, electronic components and materials, power systems, industrial and social infrastructure systems, household appliances, medical equipment, office equipment, lighting and logistics.

Toshiba was founded in 1939 as Tokyo Shibaura Electric K.K. through the merger of Shibaura Seisaku-sho (founded in 1875) and Tokyo Denki (founded in 1890). The company name was officially changed to Toshiba Corporation in 1978.

Toshiba is organised into four main business groupings: the Digital Products Group, the Electronic Devices Group, the Home Appliances Group and the Social Infrastructure Group.

In 2010, Toshiba was the world's fifth-largest personal computer vendor measured by revenues (after Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Lenovo). In the same year, it was also the world's fourth-largest manufacturer of semiconductors by revenues (after Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments).

Toshiba is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices, the Osaka Securities Exchange, the Nagoya Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.

Nonetheless, let's have a look at the die-cast scale model of this gorgeous mini pickup truck;

The casting and and detailing is very good while the painting finishing are the usual top notch quality we could expect from Tomytec.

I believe the detailing and marking is done accurately according to the real vehicle so not much more I can say, it's quite beautiful for me personally...

Feature wise, not much we get, apart from the usual "working suspension" gimmick from Tomytec (which is a standard features included even in Takara Tomy's Tomica and Tomica Limited series), we have this removable back cover - like this;

The detailing on the rear part is not bad either;

And that's about it....

Overall, this is a brilliant representation of Subaru Sambar of Toshiba. The casting, detailing and painting are all at the highest possible quality level and I have no complain what so ever. I don't really know much about this pick up truck either but I personally think it's gorgeous and the color scheme is beautiful. This may not be everyone's favorite - never has and never will be - but I like it a lot and that is enough for me to buy it and keep it in my collections.

Comments

another cute truck !!! i wonder if these are made in China as the Kyosho’s diecast for example ???... my guess is yeah, since the Chinese manpower is the most reputed (and expensive) nowadays, also the Japanese manpower must be kinda even more expensive anyway... uhmmm the working suspension is not so usual today, actually is an exclusive feature of certain vintage brands and is very welcome here... excellent diecast in every sense !!!...

on the other hand, the packging graphics are similar to those of the Tomica line, except for the fact that the model itself portaits almost identically the illustration on the box, unlike Tomica’s models which have a vague similarity =/...